Carer Wendy Holt Told To Leave Council House Because She Is 'Not Efficient Use Of Resources'

PA/The Huffington Post UK

PA

Wendy Holt was told she would have to move

A woman who cared for her sick mother for 20 years has failed to persuade senior judges to allow her to stay in the three-bedroom council house where she has always lived.

Wendy Holt was told by the council to leave her home in Reading and move to a one-bedroom property "more suited to her needs".

Three appeal judges concluded that Reading Borough Council was faced with a "huge demand" for three-bedroomed houses and was right to take the view that allowing Ms Holt to stay was not an "efficient use of resources".

A judge at sitting at Reading County Court decided in favour of the council and the Court of Appeal refused to overturn that decision, following a hearing in London on Friday.

Appeal judges heard that Ms Holt's father - Second World War veteran Arthur Holt - was granted the tenancy of the house in 1949.

He died in 1977 aged 62 and the tenancy passed to her mother, Edna, who died aged 90 three years ago.

Judges heard that Mrs Holt suffered a series of strokes, then developed Alzheimer's disease and become "increasingly confused and aggressive". And Ms Holt had been her "sole carer", day and night, for two decades.

Ms Holt said she did not want to leave the house because it contained a "lifetime of belongings" and she was "deeply attached to it".

Her doctor said she "felt secure there" and was "very low and anxious about having to move".

But judges said Ms Holt was, in the council's "terminology", an "under occupier".

Council officials suggested that she ought to apply for smaller accommodation - and sought possession.

The county court judge decided that the council acted reasonably and concluded that the "needs of others" outweighed Ms Holt's "personal circumstances". The judge said there was no "satisfactory evidence" to show a move would "prejudice Ms Holt's mental health".